Bistatic Sensing and Multipath Mitigation with a 109-Element GPS Antenna Array and Digital Beam Steering Receiver

Kenn Gold, Alison Brown and Kees Stolk

Abstract:	NAVSYS Corporation has developed a 109-element GPS antenna array and a modified version of the High-gain Advanced GPS Receiver (HAGR) which can perform beam steering with the digitally-combined signals from each antenna element. If adequate gain can be obtained from reflected GPS signals, applications involving Earth mapping, ocean surface mapping, terrain modeling, digital mapping, and other passive monitoring uses can benefit. Previous research in such uses of reflected GPS has been done at NAVSYS with a 16-element antenna array to sense the reflected signal. This paper describes the design of a 109-element Digital Beam-Steered Antenna Array and the collection of a data set to test the concept of operation. The enhanced 109-element array provides 20 dB gain over single element tracking and offers promise of retrieving usable return data from a much higher altitude than previously possible for bistatic GPS remote sensing applications. Additionally, the directionality and high gain of the 109-element array will offer significant benefit in the mitigation of multipath error over conventional GPS receivers in normal terrestrial applications. Data analysis results from the proof-of-concept flight test with the array will be presented, along with pre-flight data for the next test. The flight data was collected with the antenna array placed on the bottom of an aircraft flying over the Gulf of Mexico.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 2005 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation January 24 - 26, 2005 The Catamaran Resort Hotel San Diego, CA
Pages:	849 - 857
Cite this article:	Gold, Kenn, Brown, Alison, Stolk, Kees, "Bistatic Sensing and Multipath Mitigation with a 109-Element GPS Antenna Array and Digital Beam Steering Receiver," Proceedings of the 2005 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, San Diego, CA, January 2005, pp. 849-857.
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